One of the dirty little secrets of enterprise IT is that information is not all that well managed. IT organizations process and store data. But rarely is there a holistic approach in place to manage it. The end result is that IT costs spiral out of control.
A new survey of 641 business and IT leaders, conducted by the market research firm Coleman Parkes on behalf of Hewlett-Packard, finds that there is broad recognition of the problems associated with information management, but very little consensus about what exactly should be done to alleviate it.
Click through for results from an information management survey conducted by Coleman Parkes on behalf of HP.
The growth of content is out of control.
The majority of people (68 percent) stated that the explosion in content is adding greater complexity to an already complex world and causing real storage issues and costs. At the same time, over one half of companies say they are under pressure to cut costs spent on IM processes and systems. Fully two thirds of companies have some form of manual based approach, to their IM, whilst full automation is applicable in only just over one third of companies.
Storage of data is not consistent. Three in ten companies use a single data storage center, around the same proportion take a site/location approach, and again the same proportion use central data silos. The vast majority overall (93 percent) say business growth/M&A are an obstacle of some sort. Nearly two thirds cite that business growth/mergers and acquisitions is at least a significant obstacle to the efficient business critical information management lifecycle.
But management is still haphazard.
Around four in ten companies take a single central department approach to managing their business critical information, while over one third (37 percent) use a separate department for each location approach to IM. Additionally, two in ten say information management is totally distributed with department managers responsible for their own area. There is no single owner of IM. Some leave it to IT (43 percent) and some to the CEO/board (38 percent).
Most organizations do not have a holistic approach to the problem.
The vast majority of companies (70 percent) do not have a holistic approach to information management. Only one quarter of companies have a holistic approach but partly implemented.
Fully three quarters of major companies do not have a universal and strictly implemented formal IM protection policy, but one in five are embarking on the implementation of a policy.
Only one in five companies has a formal, completely and strictly implemented archiving policy, which is at the same level as those starting to implement a policy. Overall, one in ten companies is currently planning to implement a formal archiving policy.
The majority concede that they are not all that good at information management.
Over half (56 percent) say that it is at least very important to have effective information and data management in order to meet compliance and regulatory commitments, and the vast majority (87 percent) say it is at least quite important to have effective information and data management in order to meet compliance and regulatory commitments.
The majority of companies (63 percent) also indicated that information management could become much more efficient in the organization. Only one quarter report that they are very efficient or better at capturing the business information it needs.
One quarter of companies rate their storing of business critical information as very or extremely efficient, whereas only around two in ten companies rate their current storage approach to be very efficient or better in terms of time and cost efficiency specifically. The same proportion rate themselves as very or extremely efficient at securing business critical information. A high two thirds of companies say that they are only either efficient or somewhat efficient at monitoring/managing the business critical information that is captured.
Outside expertise is going to be required.
Fully seven in ten stated that improving the efficiency of information management processes in the organization would have a significant impact on performance and profitability. The vast majority of companies (76 percent) confirm that at least a large improvement in the efficiency of their IM process could be achieved if they were able to better streamline or significantly improve their information storage systems and processes, and the same, high proportion of firms also indicated that at least a large improvement in the efficiency of their IM process could be achieved if they were able to automate the processes of removing unneeded or unwanted information throughout the organisation.
A vast majority of companies (85 percent) do no currently use third party assistance to help capture the business critical information needed, and only approaching one third use third party support to assist with storing business critical information. The vast majority of companies cite that with more support from third parties in all areas of the business cost decreases could be seen in information management.
